There have been many prior attempts over several generations to provide such toplet assemblies, for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 737,431 issued 1903 to Marx; 1,033,671 issued 1912 to Campbell; 2,619,769 issued 1948 to Gallaher, and 2,839,869 issued 1955 to Lopez all teach plural toplet assemblies in which the individual toplets separate on casting the assembly as a result of the centrifugal forces produced by spinning.
The toplet assemblies are spun by manually pulling cords wound thereon which can produce substantial variations in spin speed with corresponding variations in the centrifugal forces which produce the toplet separation. It may, therefore, be difficult to obtain predictable and reliable separation of individual toplets, particularly in an assembly of three or more toplets and when spinning is attempted by children.
In contrast, U.S. Pat. No. 1,089,668 issued 1914 to Prendergast and U.S. Pat. No. 3,201,896 issued 1963 to Dalhart, teach top assemblies in which the individual toplets are separated by impact of the spinning assembly with a floor surface on which the assembly is dropped. However, the rigidity of the assembly taught may increase the risk of damage to the toplets by repeated floor impact, reducing life.
More particularly, Dalhart also teaches a construction in which only a single ground impact causes separation of all the toplets with the innermost, smallest, of three toplets ejected first from the intermediate toplet, which is then ejected from the outer toplet.
In addition, the operation required in all the above-mentioned patents of manually winding and pulling cords to spin the toplets can be relatively time consuming and bothersome also requiring a degree of manual dexterity, possibly beyond the capabilities of some very small children who would otherwise derive considerable pleasure from spinning tops.